The role of noise for a single neuron and for an ensemble of mutually coupled neurons is investigated. For a single element we show that an increase in noise intensity in the regime of irregular. ring enhances the coherence of the neuronal response. For this regime of spiking a study of the collective behavior for a chain composed of n mutually coupled Hodgkin-Huxley elements that are subjected simultaneously to sinusoidal drive and to a common random forcing is performed. The conditions for complete synchronization for this case are examined both within the framework of a theoretical approach based on the connection graph stability method and through numerical simulation.